vident that no healthy location could be obtained in
which the Makololo would be allowed to live in peace. I had thus a fair
excuse, if I had chosen to avail myself of it, of coming home and saying
that the "door was shut", because the Lord's time had not yet come. But
believing that it was my duty to devote some portion of my life to these
(to me at least) very confiding and affectionate Makololo, I resolved
to follow out the second part of my plan, though I had failed in
accomplishing the first. The Leeba seemed to come from the N. and by
W., or N.N.W.; so, having an old Portuguese map, which pointed out the
Coanza as rising from the middle of the continent in 9 Deg. S. lat., I
thought it probable that, when we had ascended the Leeba (from 14d 11')
two or three degrees, we should then be within one hundred and twenty
miles of the Coanza, and find no difficulty in following it down to the
coast near Loanda. This was the logical deduction; but, as is the
case with many a plausible theory, one of the premises was decidedly
defective. The Coanza, as we afterward found, does not come from any
where near the centre of the country.

The numbers of large game above Libonta are prodigious, and they proved
remarkably tame. Eighty-one buffaloes defiled in slow procession before
our fire one evening, within gunshot; and herds of splendid elands stood
by day, without fear, at two hundred yards distance. They were all of
the striped variety, and with their forearm markings, large dewlaps,
and sleek skins, were a beautiful sight to see. The lions here roar much
more than in the country near the lake, Zouga, and Chobe. One evening
we had a good opportunity of hearing the utmost exertions the animal can
make in that line. We had made our beds on a large sand-bank, and could
be easily seen from all sides. A lion on the opposite shore amused
himself for hours by roaring as loudly as he could, putting, as is usual
in such cases, his mouth near the ground, to make the sound reverberate.
The river was too broad for a ball to reach him, so we let him enjoy
himself, certain that he durst not have been guilty of the impertinence
in the Bushman country. Wherever the game abounds, these animals exist
in proportionate numbers. Here they were very frequently seen, and two
of the largest I ever saw seemed about as tall as common donkeys; but
the mane made their bodies appear rather larger.

A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were in the country at thi